Page 67 of Sunshine After the Rain

Several children and a few adults were clambering onto the smaller stones and I sighed inwardly. There were signs at the entrance statingno climbingand it frustrated me when people ignored that, especially at a site which had been around since about 3000BCand needed preserving. A cyclist had even propped his bike up against one of the taller stones.

‘I know,’ Dad murmured, catching me scowling. ‘Drives me mad too. Don’t look at it. Look at the view instead.’

We walked round the circle and stood at the far end of the field. Potentially one of the earliest of the 300-plus stone circles in Britain, the views from Castlerigg were second to none. Overlooking the Thirlmere Valley, the vista took in the fells of Helvellyn and High Seat.

‘It’s so beautiful,’ I said.

‘That’s why I proposed to your mum here.’

My head shot round. ‘You did? Why didn’t I know that?’

He shrugged. ‘I guess it never came up.’

‘Would you tell me about it now? Only if it’s not too painful.’

He smiled. ‘That memory could never be painful.’

Dad had worked in the finance department for the water authority all his life, surviving through many changes over the years and finishing his career as finance director. I knew that my parents had met there but I realised I didn’t know their story. When he’d mentioned in his speech at Mum’s birthday that it had taken him eighteen months to ask her out, that had been news to me.

He told me that, when he was in his early twenties and Mum was in her late teens, she’d joined the typing pool and he’d thought she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. He’d wanted to ask her out but she was really confident and popular and he was quiet and shy so he couldn’t imagine she’d be interested in him. She often spoke to him but he thought she was just being nice. After a couple of drinks at the Christmas party eighteen months later, he braved asking her to dance and was stunned when she said yes. While they danced, she told him that, if he asked her on a date, the answer would be the same. So he did ask, she said yes, and then she proceeded to give him a lecture about what a tiresome eighteen months it had been making up reasons to visit the finance department and dropping subtle hints that she liked him. I smiled at the thought of her giving him what for. She’d never have asked him for a date outright – it hadn’t been the done thing back then – and it tickled me that Dad had been as useless at noticing subtlety as I was.

‘That sounds very much like Mum,’ I said.

‘She was everything I’d ever hoped for in a partner and a million things more. I knew early on that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her and just needed to find the right time to ask her. I brought her here on the first day of spring, telling her it was to watch the sun set, but it was really to ask her to marry me. I knew how much she loved reading love stories so I wanted to do something romantic. I’d prepared a poem and everything but I was so nervous. I couldn’t stop fidgeting and, just before the sun dipped out of sight, she turned to me and said,For goodness’ sake, Bruce, are you going to ask me to marry you or do I have to get down on bended knee myself?Knowing it was going to be a yes gave me the confidence to do what I’d intended to do.’

‘Aw, that’s lovely. And I hadn’t realised Mum was quite so feisty back then.’

‘She’s always been feisty – just like someone else I know.’ He raised his eyebrows at me and I smiled.

‘So what was the poem?’

‘Oh, gosh, it was awful andpoemwas a stretch – more like a few rhyming lines. Let’s see if I can remember it.’ His lips moved as though reciting it. ‘Got it!’

Spring is here, which brings new life

The flowers are pushing through

Please say yes to being my wife

I’ll never stop loving you

Spring is here, a brand-new start

The birds are in fine song

To you, my dear, I give my heart

I’ll love you my whole life long.

‘Aw, Dad, that’s beautiful.’

‘And I did,’ he whispered, his eyes clouding with tears. ‘I loved her my whole life long. I just wish we’d had longer.’

I hugged him tightly and we stood there for several minutes in this place that I hadn’t realised was quite so special to him. Other than that sticky moment regarding Flynn, it had been a lovely walk full of interesting conversations but one thing had concerned me – that Dad seemed on exceptionally good form for someone who’d lost his wife less than a week ago. But holding him now, it was clear that he was struggling just as much as the rest of us. He’d already shared that he was of thestiff upper lipgeneration so I hadn’t expected him to break down in floods of tears in front of me, but it was comforting to see some emotion.

‘Thanks for sharing that with me,’ I said as we left the stone circle and set off down Castle Lane for the last stretch of our walk into Keswick. ‘I know you won’t like this question, but how are youreallydoing?’

‘I’m fine.’

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